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What should humanity do the next time a space rock threatens Earth? European officials recently spent two days figuring out possible ways to respond to such a scenario, with the aim of drawing up effective procedures before the danger actually materializes.

The first-of-its-kind simulation considered what to do if an asteroid similar to, or larger than, the one that exploded over Russia in February 2013 — which was about 62 feet (19 meters) wide — came close to Earth. Officials focused on activities ranging from 30 days to 1 hour before a potential impact.

“There are a large number of variables to consider in predicting the effects and damage from any asteroid impact, making simulations such as these very complex,” Detlef Koschny, head of near-Earth-object activities at the European Space Agency’s Space Situational Awareness office, said in a statement. [Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (Images)]

“These include the size, mass, speed, composition and impact angle,” he added. “Nonetheless, this shouldn’t stop Europe from developing a comprehensive set of measures that could be taken by national civil authorities, which can be general enough to accommodate a range of possible effects.”

The 2013 Russian meteor explosion, which occurred above the city of Chelyabinsk, helped to bring the asteroid threat into a new realm of public awareness. The shockwave created by the airburst injured 1,500 people; the vast majority were cut by shards of flying glass after windows were shattered.

The European authorities performing the new simulation, which took place in late November, took a lesson from the Chelyabinsk event, determining that it would be best to warn the public to stay away from windows and stay in buildings’ most secure areas — similar to the advice given during tornadoes.

Officials considered what to do if Earth were threatened by an object between 39 feet and 125 feet wide (12 to 38 m) traveling at 28,000 mph (45,000 km/h). ESA and related warning agencies would need to work quickly, they determined, and coordinate with civil protection authorities to give information about where and when the asteroid would likely strike, and what effects would be anticipated.

“For example, within about three days before a predicted impact, we’d likely have relatively good estimates of the mass, size, composition and impact location,” Gerhard Drolshagen, of ESA’s near-Earth-object team, said in the same statement. “All of these directly affect the type of impact effects, amount of energy to be generated and, hence, potential reactions that civil authorities could take.”

An image sent back from the European Space Agency’s Philae probe from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe has landed on the comet, but its stability or functionality has not yet been determined. ESA /

The Philae lander, a European Space Agency, or ESA, probe that was the first man-made craft to land on a comet, has stabilized, after bouncing hundreds of meters from the comet’s surface when it first attempted to touch down, according to reports. Philae was carried 4 billion miles to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the ESA’s Rosetta satellite, according to the BBC.

Harpoon mechanisms that were to anchor the probe to the comet failed to deploy correctly, meaning that the probe bounced twice, rising hundreds of meters above the comet each time, and had to make three landing attempts before finally touching down on the comet, according to a report from The Independent.

The ESA tweeted what it says is the first image taken by the lander from the comet’s surface.

Rosetta Flight Director Andrea Accomazzo was the first to announce that the lander had finally reached the surface of the comet: “We see the lander sitting on the road. We’ve definitely confirmed that the lander is on the surface,” he said, according to Discovery News.

However, some reports suggest that all is not as hoped with the craft, and that though it has touched down, it is not anchored to the comet.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the craft’s situation is still precarious, and that scientists believe that it will not, for the immediate future, be able to conduct experiments, as there are fears that the craft may be propelled back into space. One source told Mail Online that the craft may have landed on its side, resulting in unpredictable behavior.

Philae is equipped with 10 instruments that will examine the chemistry and structure of the comet, allowing it to drill into its surface, according to Deutsche Welle, Germany’s national broadcaster. It is hoped that the information gleaned might provide scientists with a greater understanding of the origins of the solar system.

Assuming that Philae gets up and running in the coming hours, the lander will have three days of battery power for scientific operations, but scientists hope to keep the lander running for up to six months on solar power, according the The Scientific American.

DARMSTADT, Germany (AP) — The European Space Agency celebrated a cosmic touchdown Wednesday by successfully landing a spacecraft on a comet for the first time in history.

The agency said it has received a signal at 1603 GMT (11:03 a.m. EST) from the 100-kilogram (220-pound) Philae lander after it touched down on the icy surface of the comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

“We definitely confirm that the lander is on the surface,” said flight director Andrea Accomazzo.

While further checks are needed to ascertain the state of the lander, the fact that it is resting on the surface of the speeding comet is already a huge success. It marks the highlight of the decade-long Rosetta mission to study comets and learn more about the origins of these celestial bodies.

The head of the European Space Agency underlined Europe’s pride in having achieved a unique first ahead of its U.S. counterpart NASA.

“We are the first to have done that, and that will stay forever,” said ESA director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain.

Rosetta, which was launched in 2004, had to slingshot three times around Earth and once around Mars before it could work up enough speed to chase down the comet, which it reached in August. Rosetta and the comet have been traveling in tandem ever since at 41,000 mph (66,000 kph).

The mission will also give researchers the opportunity to test the theory that comets brought organic matter and water to Earth billions of years ago, said Klim Churyumov, one of the two astronomers who discovered the comet in 1969.

A mysterious ‘asteroid’ discovered in orbit around Earth that baffled astronomers turns out to be man-made.

The strange object identified as ‘2013 QW1′ was discovered in August from data taken by the PanSTARRS sky survey in Hawaii.

Though it appeared as little more than a blip on a screen, the object immediately intrigued researchers. It was caught in a wide orbit around Earth, and it was difficult to tell if it really was an asteroid which had been captured by the Earth’s gravity, a piece of debris from a space mission, or something even more strange.

Mysterious ‘Second Moon’ In Orbit Around Earth Turns Out To Be Man-Made

A mysterious ‘asteroid’ discovered in orbit around Earth that baffled astronomers turns out to be man-made.

The strange object identified as ‘2013 QW1′ was discovered in August from data taken by the PanSTARRS sky survey in Hawaii.

Though it appeared as little more than a blip on a screen, the object immediately intrigued researchers. It was caught in a wide orbit around Earth, and it was difficult to tell if it really was an asteroid which had been captured by the Earth’s gravity, a piece of debris from a space mission, or something even more strange.

It was even proposed that the object (above) might be a tiny ‘second moon’ – which would be interesting – as Universe Today notes, because the actual Moon usually keeps our skies clear of these types of objects.

The identity of the object remained a mystery until taken up by the European Space Agency’s NEO Coordination Centre, who with the help of researchers at the Observatoire de Paris managed to track it with an Italian telescope.

In a press release one of the team, Davide Perna, said that finding the asteroid “was a bit of a challenge, because the object was moving fast”.

But despite the challenge the object was identified as artificial. ESA says it’s probably a booster stage rocket.

“The observations by European astronomers coordinated by ESA demonstrated a very quick reaction in getting high-quality data that conclusively identified the object as artificial, and hence no threat,” said Detlef Koschny, responsible for NEO activities at ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme office.

The solar eruption, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurred at 4:24 a.m. EDT (0824 GMT) Tuesday and blasted billions of tons of solar particles toward Earth at a mind-boggling speed of 2 million mph (3.3 million km/h).

“Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 570 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs,” NASA officials wrote in an update today. NASA’s twin Stereo spacecraft and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, captured photos of the solar storm from space.

The particles ejected by Earth-directed CMEs typically take two or three days to reach our planet, at which point they can trigger geomagnetic storms that can disrupt radio communications, GPS signals and power grids.

However, Tuesday’s blast doesn’t appear to have too much disruptive potential.

“In the past, geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of this strength have usually been mild,” NASA officials wrote.

CMEs that hit Earth can also ramp up the auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights. In fact, an enhanced auroral display may be on tap tonight and tomorrow for some skywatchers, thanks to a CME that erupted on Saturday (Aug. 17).

The cloud from this CME is not expected to slam directly into Earth, but our planet will likely cruise through the cloud’s wake after it passes by, experts said.

“This could trigger polar geomagnetic storms despite the CME being off-target,” the website SpaceWeather.com reportedtoday. “High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on August 20-21.”

The sun is reaching the peak activity phase of its current 11-year cycle, which is known as Solar Cycle 24. Solar Cycle 24’s maximum is shaping up to be the weakest of the last 100 years or so, scientists say, with relatively few powerful solar flares, CMEs and other big space weather events.

The World Wildlife Fund has released a report which calls for all carbon emissions to be banned by 2050 and for the entire human population to live in a state of poverty in the name of preserving rare species and saving the planet.

“Extremist green campaigning group WWF – endorsed by no less a body than the European Space Agency – has stated that economic growth should be abandoned, that citizens of the world’s wealthy nations should prepare for poverty and that all the human race’s energy should be produced as renewable electricity within 38 years from now. Most astonishingly of all, the green hardliners demand that the enormous numbers of wind farms, tidal barriers and solar powerplants required under their plans should somehow be built while at the same time severely rationing supplies of concrete, steel, copper and glass,” reports the Register.

The World Wildlife Fund’s new report, entitled Living Planet Report for 2012, cites its own narrowly defined and agenda-driven ‘Living Planet Index’ to claim that the “overall state of global biodiversity” is in crisis and that rare species like tigers (presumably not including the ones shot dead by WWF President Prince Philip), are in decline because humans in richer countries enjoy too high living standards.

According to the WWF, humans in developed nations are abusing their “ecological footprint” and using more “biocapacity” than they have. The only people operating within their allotted “biocapacity” are poor people in impoverished countries.

The solution? The organization wants to see “inequality adjusted human development” rather than economic development. Or put another way, the answer is focused around “drastically shrinking the ecological footprint of high income populations”.

This is merely a regurgitation of the post-industrial revolution – the planned-opolis – that Malthusian elites have been pushing for decades. Using the highly emotive propaganda offensive of rare animal species (since global warming has now largely been discredited), the WWF calls for virtually all carbon emissions to be abolished by 2050.

“For almost all of human history and prehistory we have burned things to generate energy – it is one of the things that makes us human – but now, within a single generation, that is to almost completely stop. After a million years, the fires will go out,” writes Lewis Page.

The WWF was founded by former Nazi and Bilderberg Group kingpin Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Its current President Emeritus is Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Betraying his eugenicist fervor, Prince Philip has repeatedly expressed his desire to see large numbers of human beings wiped out by a deadly virus.

“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation,” Philip told Deutsche Press Agentur in August 1988.

Philip even bemoaned the fact that medical advances had helped alleviate Sri Lanka’s crippling malaria problem in the 1980′s, brazenly lamenting the fact that less people would die.

“Sri Lanka must feed three times as many mouths, find three times as many jobs, provide three times the housing, energy, schools, hospitals and land for settlement in order to maintain the same standards. Little wonder the natural environment and wildlife in Sri Lanka has suffered. The fact [is] … that the best-intentioned aid programs are at least partially responsible for the problems,” he said during a University of Western Ontario speech in July 1983.

In the preface of his 1988 book Down to Earth, Philip spoke of his desire to see humans “culled” through means of population control.

“I don’t claim to have any special interest in natural history, but as a boy I was made aware of the annual fluctuations in the number of game animals and the need to adjust the “cull” to the size of the surplus population,” he wrote.

The European Space Agency is set to green light a new surveillance satellite that will measure man-made carbon emissions from space in order to “hunt down” violators of international climate agreements, allowing Big Brother to enforce a future tax on CO2 emissions.

Labeled CarbonSat, the satellite system will have the ability to differentiate between natural carbon emissions and man-made CO2 releases. Earlier this month, the ESA announced that it had contracted space company Astrium to develop the satellite, which will be ready for deployment by 2017.

The Astrium press releaseannouncing the project makes no mention of the fact that the satellite will be used to perform surveillance on individuals and businesses to keep tabs on their carbon footprint, instead presenting its role as merely measuring carbon emissions.

However, an interview with Astrium President Evert Dudok carried by a German climate alarmist website makes it clear that the technology will be used to spy on human activity from space and impose penalties for non-compliance with United Nations environmental treaties and regulations.

According to a translation by the prominent climate skeptic website No Tricks Zone, Dudok reveals that the primary function of the satellite will be to perform highly intrusive surveillance.

“The target is to hunt down environmental violators,” said Dudok, adding that the satellite will have the capability to detect methane as well as CO2, meaning farmers, whose activity is already policed by a network of spy satellites and drones, could face fines and taxes depending on the flatulence levels of their livestock.

“Knowledge of both of these gases is not only decisive for climate forecasts, but also for monitoring international climate treaties,” said Dudok, adding, “Up to now there has been no reliable way of monitoring the implementation of the Kyoto and Copenhagen treaties.”

In other words, the CarbonSat will be the enforcement arm of dictatorial UN climate mandates.

Dudok also explains that the satellite will be able to detect “emissions from cities” and “coal power plants,” greasing the skids for the enforcement of a tax on carbon emissions against both individuals and power companies, which in turn will drive up energy prices for consumers.

The CO2 Handel warmist website explains the true scope of the project in chilling terminology.

“Aerospace company Astrium is designing a new satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA) to be used for monitoring greenhouse gas occurrences. The new climate satellite will be able to detect greenhouse gases with an unprecedented spatial resolution: 2 x 2 kilometers. The European Space Agency wants to hunt down environmental and climate violators with its new satellite. Aerospace company Astrium will put together a feasibility study for the project by the end of 2013, according to company reports Thursday. If things move forward successfully, the mission – dubbed CarbonSat – could already begin as soon as 2017 and thus enable monitoring of international climate treaties.”

P Gosselin points out that CarbonSat is a perfect reason for European countries to reject United Nations climate mandates.

“Now if anyone ever needed a compelling reason not to sign the treaty, this is it. Signatories will have to subject their territories to a constant invasion of privacy. Who knows what else they may want to monitor later on? Where does it end?” he asks.

Indeed, this represents the ultimate goal of green fascism, where cutting edge technology is used to oversee a scientific dictatorship in which every facet of human behavior is restricted and controlled. This is the first step towards the ‘Planned-Opolis’ society imagined by climate alarmist group Forum for the Future as illustrated in the terrifying video below.